Shooting sport under lights

One of the areas newcomers find challenging are the lighting conditions in some stadiums at night or indoor venues. So why not share your tips for getting great images under these conditions, or if you have a specific set up for a venue why not share that with others.

One of the areas newcomers find challenging are the lighting conditions in some stadiums at night or indoor venues. So why not share your tips for getting great images under these conditions, or if you have a specific set up for a venue why not share that with others.

Use a light meter and get as close to 'on the field' as you can to take a reading, then shoot manual exposure for the event. If you're in a 'sun slowly setting' environment, take readings every couple of minutes. Better to slightly under-expose your shots than blow out the detail (it also gives you a faster shutter speed). Increase your ISO as light fades, rather than reducing your shutter speed so that you sacrifice the grain-levels rather than risk movement blur. If you can, take a few shots of a grey card under the lights, so as to get proper readings for white balance. You can either set a Custom White Balance to shoot with, or get a better correction ability in post-processing.
And take a coat - it can get bl00dy cold at night! :P

Use a light meter and get as close to 'on the field' as you can to take a reading, then shoot manual exposure for the event. If you're in a 'sun slowly setting' environment, take readings every couple of minutes. Better to slightly under-expose your shots than blow out the detail (it also gives you a faster shutter speed). Increase your ISO as light fades, rather than reducing your shutter speed so that you sacrifice the grain-levels rather than risk movement blur. If you can, take a few shots of a grey card under the lights, so as to get proper readings for white balance. You can either set a Custom White Balance to shoot with, or get a better correction ability in post-processing.